Free Sports Camp by Rich Wallace

back of the rowboat and Tony took the oars, rowing across the lake. Themorning had been very hot and humid, but things had turned overcast as the afternoon wore on. The wind was picking up.
    “This is better fishing weather,” Eldon said, looking up at the clouds. “The fish don’t bite when the sun’s strong.”
    The lake was dotted with canoes and rowboats. “I caught a good-sized bass the other day out by the totem pole,” Tony said. “Let’s head there.”
    The totem pole sat on a tiny island near the farthest edge of the lake. It was about ten feet tall, with a huge eagle’s head carved on top.
    “You guys know how to row?” Tony asked, turning his head.
    Eldon shrugged. Riley said, “No.”
    “It’s easy. Switch spots with me.”
    Carefully, Eldon and Riley moved up as Tony shifted back, each keeping a hand on the side of the boat. Riley put both hands on an oar and Eldon took the other.
    Riley’s oar skipped along the surface and the metal oarlock rattled. The boat began turning toward the left.
    “In sync, guys,” Tony said. “You have to row in unison.”
    After a minute or so they straightened things out and began to move forward.
    “This is the spot,” Tony said. He handed Riley a fishing rod. “You know how to cast?”
    “Yeah. I’ve been fishing a few times.” With his dad. He’d never caught anything, though, not even a bluegill or a catfish.
    Riley looked at the lure on the end of his line, a fat yellow orb with black spots.
    “That’s my best bass plug,” Tony said. “It worked great last time I was out here.”
    Riley cast the lure as hard as he could, but it landed only about fifteen feet from the boat. Eldon and Tony cast to the other side.
    “You hear about Cabin Five?” Tony asked.
    “What about ’em?”
    “Somebody poured soda or lemonade all over the floor of the cabin yesterday afternoon. By the time they got back from the relay, there were about ten trillion ants.”
    Eldon and Riley laughed. “They know who did it?” Eldon asked.
    “They think it was somebody from Cabin One. But the Cabin Five guys are the ones who had to deal with it.”
    There was a low rumble of thunder way in the distance. The counselors would call in the boats if there was any chance of a storm. There were still a few breaks in the clouds, though; a couple of rays of sun were peeking through.
    “I heard a good one,” Eldon said. “When Cabin Two wasplaying water polo the other day, somebody snuck into their cabin and tied all the sneakers together by the laces.”
    Tony gave a short laugh. “Pretty good, but not as clever as the lemonade.”
    “Guess not.”
    Riley reeled in his line and checked the lure. They hadn’t had any bites yet. He cast it better this time. “Pretty deep out here?” he asked.
    Tony scrunched up his face as if he was thinking hard. “I saw a depth chart once at the Trading Post. I think it gets forty feet deep in a few spots.”
    “We’ll be out here
without
a boat in a few days,” Riley said.
    “You know it.”
    The qualifying heats for the swim marathon hadn’t taken them this far out, but the final race would. Riley looked back toward the dock. It was a
long
way to swim.
    “It’ll be intense,” Tony said. “Out here in all this water, night coming on … Tell you what, my strategy is gonna be to do my fastest swimming right around here. Get to the turnaround point and sprint my butt back home.”
    Riley laughed. “Don’t want to be another Maynard.”
    “You got that right.”
    They were the only boat out this far; it was at least a couple of hundred yards to the nearest canoe. Riley felt a drop of rain on his neck. The sky was all clouds now.
    “Hope Big Joe will be sleeping Friday evening,” Eldon said with a grin. “Going to be a lot of commotion out here, with twenty guys racing through.”
    “It’s not just him you have to worry about,” Tony said. “I heard somebody saying there’s a
Little
Joe, too. And the only reason they call